Carol Colin was born in Tacoma, Washington and earned a BFA in 1974 from the Portland Museum Art School with a thesis in ceramic sculpture. She was aware of the Funk movement, Rauschenberg, and Eva Hesse. Out of school, the artist abandoned the ceramics process for assemblage and had her first exhibit of that work at Marylhurst College. Moving to Los Angeles in 1976, she turned to her second field of study, painting, and spent a few years trying out styles and subjects. Attempts at abstraction were unsatisfactory. She studied life-drawing and made pastel portraits of friends who sat for her. Working from her own photos she attacked larger portraits in oil influenced by the neo-expressionist movement and the painter Alice Neel. Since that time, she has alternated between pastels and oil, doing landscapes and urban scenes, often night scenes with figures and now, again, portraits. One series depicted visitors to an aquarium silhouetted against giant tanks containing fish and kelp. Since returning to the Northwest in 2021, Colin’s paintings reflect her time with family and rediscovered local scenes. The paintings should be convincing without being exacting. Color, light and the mood of a scene catch her attention. It’s sensational when a viewer understands why a subject appealed to her enough to want to paint it. She continues to learn from each effort.
